A Thousand Ways
by Izreal
Summary: Shambles # 3. To skin a cat or die. Either is acceptable in this case.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar-which likely won't happen in this one.

As I come up with ways I will add them, I doubt I will reach 1000 but you never know. My mind is a scary place.

**Warning**: This is deserving of the M rating for nothing less than violence in pretty gory detail at times.

-also not Beta'd, still waiting to hear back from someone.

**Why?** Frankly if you start thinking about DF applications any of them are pretty scary if you have an imagination and have even a touch of morbidity in your mind. Example, Luffy could punch someone in the mouth or gut and then **inflate** his hand via gear thrid… and it's not a pretty picture. Not that Luffy would likely do this—cuz he is you know _Luffy_. Now we take the DARK DOCTOR and think about how _broken_ his powers could be when added with his innate medical knowledge and possibly genius intellect and things get _really_ scary.

I may include other DF users in an attempt to reach a thousand (read: if I get bored enough or particularly inspired). If you are interested in that or someone in particular, let me know and I will put my mind on it.

Originally this was going to be apart of And Other Insects…and decided the tone was not a good fit _at all. _In this we see the very dark parts of Law (and anyone else I include) that gave him his petty nasty reputation. Because cutting people apart and putting them back together can't be the only reason Law is considered terrifying. The fact that he can reassemble people makes that power _alarming_, but not worthy of the pure abstract horror that is associated with Law.

* * *

**1) Give them a Hand…**

_Interesting._ Law thought watching the rival pirate captain freeze in place with a decidedly ill look on his rapidly paling face.

It was the first time Law had seen the reaction in person though he knew _intimately _what it felt like first hand. It was incredibly unpleasant and one he did everything in his power to avoid, though in this case it was _terribly_ amusing.

_It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt…it if is not you it's hilarious._ Law recalled a teacher from his distant childhood commenting. _How true._

"_How_?" The Staff Staff user croaked out barely conscious.

Relaxing for the first time since the fight had begun Law sheathed his sword in a somewhat complicated action before resting it in the crook of his right arm. He then reached up to his left shoulder with his freed hand. Calmly he used the combination of his Op Op powers still active and a precise twist of his wrist to pop his shoulder back into its socket. If he had been a normal person, read hadn't eaten a devil fruit that allowed him to control objects in space, this wouldn't have been possible to do unassisted. Without the fruit, it wouldn't have mattered that the ligaments in that same shoulder were already weakened from repeated dislocation and abuse when he had been still growing.

_Thank you so very much Vergo._ Law thought with a sneer while flexing his left elbow and fingers experimentally to check for range of movement.

The fight had been rather one-sided to the casual observer with the Staff Staff user having the advantage of experience over Law. That is, until Law had managed to lop off one of the man's hands and lower arm. The other pirate had ignored the wound as it hadn't even hurt and even gone so far to mock Law's so called useless cutting ability. After all what use was there in being able to slice someone up without harming them?

Trevor Herman had even gone the extra mile and called Law a softhearted fool that was more a doctor than a pirate.

The joke was on him however, as he lost his footing and dropped to his knee's before Law.

_It would appear that even a submerged limb is enough to paralyze a user. And it works even when not connected to their body._ Law thought thinking of the hand he had shambled into the ocean only moments before in half desperation and half experimentation.

Law was covered in bruises from the numerous staffs that he had been forced to contend with but gave no evidence that he was in pain from the assault. The throbbing in his right cheek hinted at a cracked zyomatic, it would likely be painful to chew for a while, but not as bad if he had gotten hit in the jaw proper. He had been thrashed much worse than this paltry beating in the past. He dismissed his room with a thought, feeling the chaotic energy dissipate and settle back into his body.

He drew his nodachi with his right hand ignoring the twinge from his left arm now holding the sheath, and smoothly stabbed it through the downed mans chest, easily going through the mains sternum and muscle like it was butter. Law still marveled at how _easy_ it was to cut things even outside of his room's, how bones slid against the metal of his blade with a nearly musical hum as they ground together. Trevor's eyes blew wide in shock.

Law took a step backward and with a single wrench pulled his blade from the corpse. The hum of bone on steel intensified sounding now like a laugh. He quickly twisted his wrist, flicking the blood off the tip of the blade splattering the deck with crimson splashes that resembled macabre flower blooms.

"Law-sencho?" Penguin asked from Laws right.

Law's eyes flickered to his crew where they had already taken care of the rest of Trevor's men.

"Take him below and get him prepped." Law ordered then as a near afterthought, "also get ice prepared."

With a prompt and somewhat shaky salute the man complied.

"Y-yes Sencho!"

Eyes back to the body Law felt a smirk settle on his lips.

_It would be a terrible oversight to let this opportunity go to waste. _Law turned to see to any pressing injuries among his crew. _After all, never know when you will need a new liver._

* * *

We know that complete paralysis happens at about knee height _for sure _and power loss as soon as anything is submerged for DF users. I think this and reactions to Seastone may vary from person to person like an allergic reaction. Think about it, knee height varies from person to person, so it's likely a percentage of a body mass submerged rather than a set mass. We also know that Law's powers don't negate body parts affecting the rest of the body even in this case thanks to Punk Hazard.

If nothing else, this is another reason that Law's power is quite broken. If he manages to hit a DF user and lope off something significant just **once** and submerge that body part, they are effectively screwed no matter how powerful they are.

I made up the other pirate and their DF power. Completely non-cannon and I checked to make sure I didn't use one in existence yet. All it allows is the ability to make body parts into staffs similar to Belemy's spring power.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar. Once again you are not likely to see any normal dialogue as this is all made up on speculation as part of a thought experiment gone wrong.

As I come up with ways I will add them, I doubt I will reach 1000 but you never know. My mind is a scary place.

I am uploading two chapters at once...go me.

* * *

**2) Malpractice**

Law let the corrupt marine go on his merry way without so much as a threat. Around him the assembled Heart Pirates relaxed and began to chatter, albeit nervously. Closest to Law was Bepo holding Law's nodachi. Law was aware of the large clawed paws minutely tightening on the dark swords sheath.

"I don't like him." The bear commented his beetle black eyes locked on the fading figures in the distance.

Law inclined his head slightly and then tipped it to better hear what Penguin and Shachi were discussing. He didn't bother to pay attention to who was saying what as they were talking in an uncharacteristic subdued fashion, only the whisper of words were intelligible.

"…we are lucky they only took most of our food and demanded medical treatment. They could have _obliterated _us or taken us to Impel Down! But we are still stuck in the middle of nowhere!"

"Hey we are still free because of Sencho's awesome skills! A simple liver transplant he could have done in his sleep!"

"One day we will be so strong that we will be able to fight off guys like that with a _look_. We will be kings among men! One day we'll find that guy again and give him hell!"

Law huffed out a breath watching the marine ship fade off into the horizon.

* * *

It would be two weeks before they saw the ship again. In that time the Heart Pirates had to resort to eating seaweed and fish supplemented with what little dried goods they still had. The marine ship was not sailing when they located it, but instead hung up on a shoal near the tiny island they were stopping at for water.

Law had led his crew to the ship with caution but with no surprise. Law was also the only person aside from Bepo that didn't have to leave the ship briefly to relieve themselves of their lunches from first the smell then the sight that greeted them below the vessel's deck.

It was to put it simply, a _bloodbath._ The red ichors covered the once-white walls and floor in streaks and swaths; some shaped like smeared hands others from _something_ being drug through them. Worse than the blood were the half-eaten and mangled bodies stung at random intervals that were only identifiable as human from the remains of clothing. After all, in most of the cases faces were completely unrecognizable where they seemed to have been _chewed_ or ripped off. The bodies had been little better making identification even more difficult with red stained white bone peaking through areas of rent flesh that looked more like hamburger than muscle.

Law calmly threaded his way through the gore unaffected by the carnage with Bepo following him like a shadow. Some of his more sturdy crewmembers managed to return to his side after they had gained their stomachs and managed to find their way to the bowls of the ship where their captain had ended up.

"What do you think happened to them Law-sencho?" Shachi asked, he was still visibly shaken by the ship but admirably managed to stand his ground.

Blinking slowly Law looked at his crewman blankly. He had been quieter than usual since the marines had effectively raided them and left them to starve in the middle of the ocean. His expression suddenly morphed and a razor-sharp smile, though it never reached his dead eyes. The flash of white teeth was so much like a wolf's fangs that Shachi jerked back startled.

"Rapid onset acute encephalitis." Law said simply his teeth unnaturally bright in the darkness of the room.

"Sencho?"

Law turned his eyes to the room again and walked toward the desk. The top was splattered with blood and disorganized but the most intact object in the room. Methodically he broke into the drawers flipping through the papers, pulling out ones he deemed important and letting the rest drop into a pile at his side.

Shachi startled when his captain began to speak again, his voice unnaturally loud in the stagnant silence of the dimly lit room.

"Rabies," Law began eyeing the paper he held with his eyes quickly darting over the words, "is one of the oldest known diseases to man. It affects humans, giants, even some fishman and mermaids. It is nearly always fatal and can even stay dormant in a host for years after the initial infection before it surfaces and attacks their body. The most notable symptoms include excessive salivation, frenzied behavior, possible paralysis, and hydrophobia. Highly contagious and voracious, transmitted through bites and also blood."

Shachi caught onto the implication. He swallowed, acutely aware of how his mouth tasted of cotton.

"Er…that's very interesting, so they had rabies? Did they have it when we had them on board Sencho?" He asked worried recalling the blood from surgery.

The Heart Pirates were trained to be very careful of contamination in the operating room. But accidents happened.

Law's eyes left the papers for the first time since they had entered the room. In them was a viscous look of muted _glee_. The same look as a child that had discovered a brightly colored butterfly in the garden and upon having caught it in their hands was examining it. Watching it flutter and struggle in a cage of fingers and seeing the play of colors as the creature sat in its prison.

That same expression one sported, just before pulling off the still fluttering wings.

"Of course," Law ignored the question, "contaminated _organs_ or tissue when transplanted in a living subject seem to work _just_ as well. How…_interesting_."

* * *

**Overly Scientific Health Announcement: **I am well aware this has been done in various crime shows and I believe there has been the occasional real life case. This is also a completely plausible outcome (with the possible exception of the entire crew getting killed from one infected victim, but lets assume worst case scenario). Rabies is nasty business and comes in multiple strains, the two main division being the violent version you see in books and TV. and the paralytic version which makes you, surprise, surprise _paralyzed_ and lethargic. It first infects the site of introduction; usually a bite wound, then moves to the central nervous system causing encephalitis (brain inflammation), then the rest of the body where the infected organs come from.

If you get bitten by a mammal like a stray dog or similar **you should get checked out**. As soon as the symptoms present, you are pretty much a dead. Good news is there is a treatment for the disease if you catch it early. Better news, you no longer have to get multiple shots into your stomach. There is even a really expensive preventative vaccine I believe vets have to get. Go medical science!

Hydrophobia—fear of water…which adds a whole new level of scary to this particular scenario. I was planning on Law giving someone a disease via his abilities…and then rabies-organs came to mind…and **then** I remembered the symptoms specifically hydrophobia. They are on ships…**rabies** on a ship—surrounded by **water**. Holy Hemlock that is just horrifying especially if you have the violent strain involved.

Merman and Fishman—can interbreed with humans and **seem** to have live birth. Also have mammary glands for all appearances (Sanji's epic nosebleed adventures proof of this)…therefore likely mammals or some sort of subclass of mammalia. Ergo they are likely susceptible to rabies. I am playing that the more "fishy" individuals have an immunity or tolerance to the virus.

Yes I play Law in a generally somewhat sympathetic light. That doesn't mean that I don't think he has issues. In fact, I think he has a **lot** of them. Also, he is all for the eye for an eye and do onto others rule. He admits to the latter **word for word** in Punk Hazard. OP world seems to be behind in some respects to the real world, Law may be literally the only person capable of performing successful transplants (we know blood donation exists but organs are a bit of jump since the likelihood of rejection is high even with a lot of drugs to combat it). Thus, the fact that rabies is transmittable through them could likely be still a theory in OP world…until now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar.

For something so short...this took a while for me to get ready to post.

* * *

**3) Puzzle Piece**

The first few times Law had used an operating room to slice into people it had been a breathtaking thrill that he though he would never find the match of, much less a superior. The feel of blood against his skin even with the thin veneer of rubber gloves barely a barrier against the body-warmed liquid. The slip and resistance when cutting flesh, rough rasp of red-stained bone, and crackling snap of cartilage, would always be achingly clear in his memories. Seasoning the impressions was the heady pleasure brought on by a complex problem, finding it, and fixing it. And above all tactile sensation and feeling was the certainty that _he_ was in control and the patient's fate was _literally_ found within his hands. How with just a little slip of his knife, the difference between life and death could be decided for the patient on the table.

After eating the fruit on a whim and burning with anger he had first thought he had made a truly stupid sacrifice.

Until he had figured out how to use a _room_ and discovered by accident and intuition how his Op Op abilities functioned. And the result could only be described as sanguine _ecstasy_ that lit his blood afire and brought out actual emotion from his broken psyche.

It was one thing to be able to cut into a living human and see the individual parts working in harmony. He did it often and with relish. But it was like a keyhole view into _possibilities_ that would remain locked behind a door_._ The keyhole was additionally severely limited by the physical limitations of both doctor and patient. And that was, in a word, _frustrating_. To be forever reach for an end he could almost see, but never grasp.

But then came the fruit.

And with the fruit came the _room._ With a _room_ he could shatter a body and arrange it around his sphere while watching everything functioning at _once_ and in ways once inconceivable. And then, with a thought and twitch of his fingers, he could put it all back together again. In _any_ way he desired with _whatever or whoever_ he desired mixed in.

Need a new arm?

_No problem. _Just stick a different one on, it may not match, but it's as good as new.

What did a heart look like from the inside while it was beating?

_No problem._ Just cut it in half and watch the valves open and close as it pumps.

A particularly _annoying_ enemy?

_No problem._ Disassemble them and jumble them together with this and that, they are no longer an issue.

For a doctor, a man of science, the possibilities for discovery and experimentation were _endless_. Only constrained by the imagination and creativity of the user of the Op Op fruit.

Of course, Trafalgar Law was not **_just_** a doctor.

He was _Captain _Trafalgar Law, _pirate_.

And that mindset opened up the once locked door to a whole new continuum of _applications_.

After all, as often as Law saved a life, he took one as well.

* * *

This first time he _purposefully_ killed using his newly acquired power; he had let his victim think they had gotten upper hand. Law had cut the marine's leg off through his femur in three places before shambling it with numerous cut up objects that he had promptly tossed about in a mesmerizing jumble. The marine had managed, through his own skill and the rapid onset of Law's exhaustion from using such a large room for so long, to reassemble his body in a timely fashion.

The room faded and Law watched as the Lieutenant charged. At that moment, he crushed his fingers against his palm, using his fingernails to roughly slice through the object in his hand. A spray of blood flew from his hand in a pulsating cascade. Instantly the marine stumbled his leg giving out, he let out a cry at the sudden and unexpected pain.

Breathing heavily from the effort of holding the room stable and the manipulation of the objects within, Law held his ground, watching as the marines agonized face slowly blanked and he dropped unconscious. Just visible through a tear in his white dress pants his leg, fully intact for all appearances, was rapidly darkening under the skin turning a dark red-violet. A clear sign of rapid internal bleeding, pooling together in a mass of blood at the sight of the rupture. In this case the middle of the marines thigh.

_Three minutes or thereabouts until death._ Law thought gaze flickering over his enemy assessing the damage with a critical and detached eye. _Make that closer to two, I believe the damage from that barrel hitting his chest did more damage than I thought, a punctured a lung perhaps. Hmm, I will have to see how much inertia I can impart into marked objects or take from them in my next experiment. A solution to bullets would be…most advantageous._

He snorted and tossed the object from his hand to rest in the dirt with its owner. It was nearly unrecognizable, especially covered in wet soil, but Law knew what it was, or rather what it had been. It was red, rubbery, and cylindrical though somewhat mangled. It had been roughly cut down the center from top to bottom, leaving the object in two ragged pieces.

_The femoral artery once severed, __**fatal**__, if not treated. Cause of death: massive internal hemorrhaging._ Law diagnosed wiping his bloody hand on the marine's pristine white uniform leaving a blazing red smudge across the front in the rough shape of his fingers. _So, when outside a room, damage to a part causes damage to the part and the __**whole**__. Fascinating._

* * *

This was one of the first scenarios to come to mind when I started thinking of fatal applications of the Op Op fruit. Law can cut up things and they still affect the whole when they are alive—pain, cold, etc…so _theoretically_ Law can destroy a vital piece and kill a victim from a distance if he snags it via shambles/scan or whatever. This means that Law purposefully leaves a good number of his cannon victims _alive_, albeit in a jumbled mess. However, that doesn't mean he can't off them later if he takes _souvenirs_ and the really creepy thing is that with _scan_/_shambles_ he can grab whatever the hell he wants. To me, it is the scenario I present in this short and the idea of souvenirs that gave Law his reputation for a crew murderer not the basic concept of just shambling people (not that that isn't emotionally scarring).

I Googled how long it takes to bleed out from having your femoral artery cut and went with the first clear answer then rounded a bit ( answers. yahoo question/ index?qid =20080316225340AA2SKYv). It's nice I can find most of the medically related information I need on the Internet…and at the same time somewhat alarming at how easy my obscure questions can be answered. The fact that I could find out how much silver is toxic to an average human and also a _horse_ under two minutes (completely unrelated to fanfic) proves this.

Title: Not as obvious of a pun, but refers to when you have a puzzle and you are missing a piece. It tends to screw up your day.


End file.
